Perfect Love

One of the most daunting commandments given by the Savior is this injunction in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The footnote to this verse suggests that the word perfect means “complete, finished, fully developed.” Much has been said about this and how the Savior was not requiring that we make no mistakes but rather that we become complete in Him. Even He did not consider Himself perfect (i.e. complete) until after His resurrection as we see from the fact that He only included Himself as an example of someone who is perfect until He visited the Nephites with a resurrected body (3 Nephi 12:48). As I read this chapter in Matthew yesterday, though, I had a thought that perhaps there is another valid interpretation of how the Lord wants us to be “perfect” given by the context of what He said just prior to making this statement. The fact that He included the word “therefore” seems to indicate a connection with the instructions He gave in the preceding verses.

Before giving the command to be perfect in the Sermon on the Mount the Savior gave teachings on how we should love others. He told us, “Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.” He continued by telling us that we should not only love our neighbor but our enemy also: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” He commented on how the Father—He whom we need to be perfect like—“maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He then questioned us, “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” Directly after these thought-provoking questions about how we personally love others, the Savior then gave His instruction to “be ye therefore perfect.” So in context, the injunction to be perfect seems to be related to the love that we show to others. Like our Father in Heaven who perfectly loves and blesses all His children, we must strive to be perfect in love towards others. This means that we love all no matter how they treat us.

Mormon taught us about “perfect love” and that this is indeed obtainable for us. He wrote, “I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear. And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love.” He had perfect love for others, and He taught us that through repentance, humility, and the Holy Ghost we too can have this kind of perfect love: “And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God” (Moroni 8:16-17,26). As we repent and come unto the Lord in humility, the Holy Ghost can help us obtain a perfect love which can endure through our diligent prayers until we can one day dwell with God in a perfect and complete state. As we consider in our own lives the Savior’s injunction to be perfect, perhaps we should think first and foremost about how we love others and work to more fully live His law of perfect love.